


Arrow: It's Not Easy 2.0

by ArlyssTolero



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24482836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArlyssTolero/pseuds/ArlyssTolero
Summary: When Sara Lance is ready to abandon Starling City and their relationship at the first setback in her road to redemption, Oliver Queen has a few pointed words for the Canary, ultimately leaving her with the decision to either flee or to stand and fight with him for their home and their redemption.
Relationships: Moira Queen & Oliver Queen & Thea Queen, Oliver Queen & Slade Wilson, Sara Lance/Oliver Queen
Comments: 20
Kudos: 19





	Arrow: It's Not Easy 2.0

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Arrow.
> 
> A/N: This is a rewrite of a one-shot I did a while back, the orphaned version of which is still available on this site. This rewrite has a number of changes. I hope everyone will enjoy it.

“Tibetan Pit Viper venom,” Felicity said with a grimace as John Diggle hooked up an I.V. drip of the stuff to keep Roy sedated. “A constant dose of that can’t be good for you.” She looked over at Sara Lance, who was watching with folded arms and a troubled, but thoughtful look on her face. “Right?”

“It’ll keep him sedated like it did Slade,” John replied.

“Until when? And what happens when we run out?” Felicity asked as Oliver Queen limped into the room. “It’s not like you can buy this stuff over the counter. Unless you’re in Tibet. Then… maybe.”

“We’ll take care of him,” Oliver said as he came to a stop beside Felicity and across from Sara, bracing himself on the table holding Roy with one hand to take the pressure off his injured leg, if only for a short time. He looked at Roy’s unconscious face, remembering when he had had the chance to cure Slade but chose not to, and then looked at Sara. “I’m not ready to give up on Roy.” He began limping back over to a seat.

“Anyone else crave dim sum after fisticuffs?” Felicity asked, feeling the tension in the air and trying to handle it in the best way she knew how, by breaking it with a humorous quip. Unfortunately, it fell flat. “No? Okay, dumplings for one, then…” Felicity said, heading to her computer to put in the order (which she would then wait for upstairs to avoid the awkward tension in the Foundry). Sara stared down at the unconscious form of the young man, guilt eating inside of her.

“I would have killed him,” she said quietly, before looking at Oliver, who was pulling on his suit coat. “I was ready to. He’d be dead right now if you hadn’t of stopped me.”

“But he’s not,” Oliver said, turning to face Sara, “and that’s all that matters.” He turned and began walking towards the stairs. Felicity was doing her best to fill that order quick and get out to escape the tension that was building more and more between the Arrow and the Canary.

“That’s not true…” Sara said, and Oliver stopped in his tracks. “I _wanted_ to kill Roy. Because that’s what I do,” she continued as Oliver turned to face her. “That’s who I am. Because I spent six years in the darkness, and I looked into the eyes of the devil, and I gave him my soul.”

“Let me help you get it back,” Oliver said, sensing where this conversation was going.

“No, you deserve someone better,” Sara said, with a painful grimace that might otherwise have been a smile. “Someone who can harness that light that’s still inside of you. But I’m not that person… and I never will be.” Sara turned to go. Felicity had made her escape upstairs.

“Sara…” Oliver said, and she turned back. “You are very wrong. There _is_ no light left inside of me. I’ve been struggling this year because I’m trying to channel something that _doesn’t exist_ anymore.” Sara stood rooted in the spot as Oliver stepped closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve both spent six years in darkness. We both sold our souls to a devil. I was in Russia two years ago, and I skinned a man alive not just to interrogate him, but for _practice_ _in channeling my darkness, harnessing it, and giving it its own identity_. It isn’t easy to try a different path, Sara; Dig had to force me to go after the Restons. Felicity forced me again to change what I did when the Dodger came to down.”

Oliver stepped closer still, planting a kiss on Sara’s forehead. “I killed the Count. I killed Cyrus Gold. I tried to kill Slade the moment we were alone at the mansion. It’s not easy to stop killing after doing it for so long. I keep telling people I am no hero because I’m not. I’m just a guy who wants to help his city, and sometimes, that means I have to kill.” Oliver took one of Sara’s hands in his own. “John and Felicity are good friends, but I know that they judge me when I kill, when I torture, when I do things that don’t fit their definition of being a hero. You are the _one person_ who doesn’t judge me, because we _are the same_. Don’t give up, don’t run from your problems after one setback. The only way to grow beyond what the island, the League, and A.R.G.U.S. made us into is if we get back up and _keep fighting_. Don’t abandon this fight; stand with me.” Oliver looked down. “Stand with me and our city. Don’t leave. Please, be here when I get back. We still have work to do.” Oliver turned and left, Sara watching him go with a troubled expression.

**_*DC*_ **

“Oliver… Oliver!” his mother’s voice, desperate and worried, filled his ears. He came to on the ground in a clearing, headlights from a car burning his irises. He blinked as he tried to adjust to the light, the sobs of his sister and the cries of relief from his mother as he opened his eyes filling his ears. He could see the figure of Slade Wilson, an eyepatch covering his right eyehole, which laid empty after Oliver had stuck an arrow in it on the _Amazo_ , behind his mother. He flashed back to the night Shado died, feeling the pain of her death all over again.

“I was dead the last time you were offered this choice,” Slade said, gesturing to the two bound women with his left hand.

“Slade,” Oliver growled out, anger at his one-time friend and mentor burning through his veins as he tried to escape his bindings, but Slade knew his capabilities… and his weaknesses. He had trained him after all.

“Oliver, what’s happening?” Thea begged to know. Her pronunciation of his name was garbled by the intensity of her sobbing.

Oliver pulled himself up into a sitting position to better face Slade, the sobs of his mother and sister reverberating in his ears.

“I often wondered how you looked,” Slade continued as he crouched down so that he and Oliver’s eyes were level, “when he pointed the gun at Shado, and took her from me.”

“You psychopath,” Oliver hissed out. “Shado-Shado wasn’t yours!”

“No, she was yours,” Slade agreed. “Until you chose another woman over her.”

“That’s not what happened!” Oliver snarled back.

“It is what happened!” Slade roared. “It is! She told me!” He gestured behind him, where there was nothing but open air.

“What do you mean, she?” Oliver demanded to know. “There’s nobody there!”

“Slade…” Moira said softly, trailing off as realization dawned. “You were on the island, with Oliver…”

“I thought I had known true despair, until I met your son,” Slade said, looming over Moira. “I trusted him, to make the right choice.”

Oliver shifted forward as best he could. “Let me make the right choice now,” he pleaded with Slade. “Kill me!”

“No!” both Moira and Thea sobbed.

“Choose me, please!” Oliver continued to plead with Slade.

“I am killing you, Oliver,” Slade said, pulling a gun from beneath his long black coat. “Only more slowly than you would like.” He cocked the gun.

“Don’t,” Oliver begged.

“Choose,” Slade said, pointing his gun at Moira’s head.

“No,” Thea sobbed.

“Don’t,” Oliver continued to beg.

“Choose,” Slade insisted.

“Please,” Oliver whispered.

Slade moved the gun, placing it right on top of Thea’s head, burying the muzzle in her brown hair.

“Choose!” Slade continued to insist even as Moira gave a wordless scream at seeing her daughter with a gun to her head.

“I swear to God, I am going to kill you!” Oliver shouted.

“CHOOSE!” Slade thundered.

“No! NO!” Oliver thundered right back.

“No,” Moira sobbed along with Oliver, slowly rising to her feet.

“Mom,” Oliver said, a feeling of terror clutching his heart.

“No,” Moira said more firmly.

“Mom, what are you doing?” Oliver asked.

“There’s only one way this night can end,” Moira said despondently.

“No,” Thea sobbed, understanding what her mother was saying and rebelling against it.

“And we both know that,” she continued, turning to face Slade. “Don’t we, Mr. Wilson?”

“Mom, please, don’t!” Oliver sobbed.

“Both my children will live,” Moira continued, her voice becoming firmer as she addressed Slade directly.

“Mom!” Thea cried. “What are you doing?”

“Thea, I love you,” Moira said as Slade raised the pistol. “Close your eyes, baby!”

“No!” Oliver shouted in rage, fighting his bonds ever more fiercely, a cry that was echoed despairingly by his sister.

Slade was staring at Moira through his one remaining eye. “You possess true courage,” he finally said, holstering his weapon. “I am truly sorry…” he turned away, causing Moira to relax. Slade reached into his coat again and withdrew his sword. “…that you did not pass that on to your son!” Slade turned and struck Moira through the heart. Moira stiffened, Thea crying out in agonized grief, before Slade removed his blade from Moira and let her fall. As she fell, so did Oliver, to the side, despair and hopelessness warring within him with the self-hatred that had become his constant companion.

“There is still one person who has to die,” Slade said, moving towards Thea, placing his sword against her cheek, “before this can end.”

“No,” Oliver sobbed, begging Slade not to do this.

Slade cut Thea’s bonds and then left. Thea moved towards her fallen mother. “Mom?” she begged softly as she turned her over. “Mom? No! No! Mom!” Thea collapsed on top of her mother, hands gripping her shoulders as Thea’s own shoulders shook with grief.

**_*DC*_ **

“Ollie!” Sara rushed into the police station, searching for her boyfriend. She had still been at the Foundry, going over what Oliver had said in his head, when the report came over the police channels that Felicity had hacked that they had received an anonymous tip that led them to the scene where Moira Queen had been killed, her children still there with her. They were being brought to this precinct. Sara spotted Oliver and Thea, both with blankets over their shoulders. Thea was looking shell-shocked, barely answering the questions posed to her, while Oliver had a blank expression on his face as he answered questions mechanically. The detectives drifted away from the Queen siblings, having got what they needed, and Sara went over to them, kneeling in front of her boyfriend. “Ollie, I’m so sorry,” Sara whispered.

“It was just like with Shado,” Oliver told her quietly. “He set it up, wanted me to choose.” Sara felt a flash of hatred shoot through her, knowing how that would’ve tormented Oliver. “But Mom made the choice for me. She gave her life for us.” Thea let out a sob at this. “This is all my fault, Sara. If I had just told him the truth back then-”

“Then he would’ve just killed you then, and there’d be no one to know why he was going after the people we care about,” Sara said, putting her hands on either side of Oliver’s face and making him look at her. “We’re in this together, remember?”

“So, you’re staying?” Oliver asked softly.

“I’m staying,” Sara confirmed. “We’ll fight for each other’s souls.” Oliver took her hand In his, entwining their fingers. Without Sara here, he might have believed the only choice to stop Slade’s vendetta was to give himself over to the man. But with Sara here, willing to fight alongside him, he knew he had a chance.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this little one-shot.
> 
> The point of this one-shot was to fix what had to be the singular dumbest break-up in the Arrowverse, and yes, that even tops Felicity’s “you can’t have secrets but I can” break-up with Oliver in S4. Why? Because there was literally NO REASON for this break-up to happen and it made NO SENSE based on the events of the show so far. Sara had spent over half the season running from the League of Assassins, had even been willing to drink Tibetan Pit Viper venom to avoid returning to that life, but one setback and she’s suddenly all, “I’m an assassin and an assassin only, so I’m going back to Nanda Parbat,” regardless of the arguments for her to stay?
> 
> Nope, Not on my watch. The original version included Felicity having something to add to it, and like I said, that version is still available via the orphan account on this site. But I don’t particularly care much for Felicity and I’m done trying to be fair to “OTA”. So, I reworked this story so that it’s Oliver’s words that reach Sara, and Oliver’s alone.


End file.
